SOS Children's Village Itahari

1Villages

133Orphaned and Abandoned Children

1Youth Facilities

84Youths in our care

2Schools

506Elementary and secondary students

2Social Centres

1 556Beneficiaries

SOS Children's Villages decided to build the sixth Nepalese SOS Children's Village after the heavy earthquake of 1988, during which many people were left homeless and numerous children lost their parents. Itahari is a fast-growing town in eastern Nepal. It is situated in a fertile plain near the Indian border, about 500 km away from Kathmandu. The SOS Children's Village is located approximately 3 km outside the town, in a small place called Arhariya.

SOS Children's Village Itahari was officially inaugurated in February 1992 in the presence of SOS Children's Village President Helmut Kutin. It consists of 14 family houses, the village director's house, coworkers' residences as well as administrative buildings. There is also an SOS Hermann Gmeiner School including a kindergarten, a primary and a secondary school with 15 classrooms altogether.

The adjoining SOS Social Centre organizes different community-support and family-strengthening programmes according to needs. It provides day care for children from the local community whose parents earn their living as labourers. Additionally, it offers health counselling, literacy classes for children as well as income generating training workshops for women. All these services have contributed to a very good relationship with the local population. In 2001, an SOS Youth Facility was established in the city of Biratnagar (about 30 km from Itahari). There young people live together preparing for their future independence under the care of a youth supervisor.